LiveFreeAndComply.org

Please watch this important message from the Citizen’s Realty Advisory Program outlining the Tamworth Millionaire Program (T.M.P.): a bold new initiative the Tamworth Selectmen have embarked upon to help struggling residents through these difficult economic times by drastically increasing their net worth. Find out how you too can become an overnight multi-millionaire simply by criticizing the actions of Tamworth politicians. This film may also be educational for other emotionally insecure, brazen, morally bankrupt politicians outside of Tamworth who are looking to increase tax revenue in their own towns.

More information on the T.M.P. can be requested from the town officials by mailing this easy-to-use form to:

Tamworth Board of Selectmen
84 Main Street
Tamworth, NH 03886

…or by contacting the Selectmen’s office directly at 603-323-7525. The Selectmen are also handily available via admin@tamworthnh.org. All personal information on the form is certainly optional, but if you’d like a response from the office staff under RSA 91-A, you may want to include some type of contact information. Sending in something particularly witty? Berated on the phone by the office staff? Please let us know at info@livefreeandcomply.org

Local objector to town government and avid writer for this website, Scott Finman, received a $4,000,000 tax assessment and resulting $70,000 /year tax bill from the Board of Selectmen in Tamworth. This is the second time in the past few months the Tamworth Selectmen have seen fit to punish town residents for what they say and write about them. Finman released the following statement:

My new status as a multi-millionaire arose out of a 20 second conversation with the tax assessor, Phil Bodwell, several months ago in which he asked to set up a time to meet with me so he could inspect the property and home; I replied that if I have to, I guess I have to, otherwise, we are a private family and would prefer to keep it that way. This policy of mine for nosy bureaucrats is not unique to the assessor’s office – my past experiences with the town government have caused nothing but problem and expense for me; the less they are involved in my property the better.

I have personally provided the Selectmen’s office with a septic plan, footprint of the house, a current use map, a detailed building notification form including square footage and number of bedrooms, as well as photos of each side of the four sides of the house and the barn. I cannot imagine what more they could possibly need to come up with an assessment at least bearing some semblance to reality. The Selectmen are hardly hurting for property comparison’s in Tamworth when it comes to single-family homes with agricultural uses of land – this is the theme of hundreds of the properties in town.

This is not the first occurrence of this problem. Selectman Willie Farnum, prior to a public meeting, openly described his policy for dealing with the few hundred privacy minded families who did not give their permission for the tax assessor to enter their homes during last year’s re-assessment: evaluate the interior of their homes at the highest level possible (assume the interior of an old Tamworth farm house is encrusted with granite countertops and $800 faucets, for example), and residents will come to the Selectmen begging to have the assessor in their home when they see their tax bill. This policy could account for the first million dollars of my assessment, but John Roberts’ motion, seconded by Farnum, to increase my assessment to four million dollars is clearly a perpetuation of their objection to folks speaking out against them that started with former Selectman Tom Abugelis’ public flogging for a letter-to-the-editor criticizing the mentality of town government. I can’t imagine the Selectmen will fess up to their assessment being a punitive measure, but a four million dollar price tag on an unfinished single-family home and a 36′x36′ barn speaks for itself.

I have been an active observer of the town government in Tamworth for over a year now, and a four million dollar punishment for what one thinks, says, and writes in town is even shocking for what I have unfortunately come to expect out of Willie Farnum, John Roberts, and Cassandra Pearce. I have lived in large cities where mayors have been convicted for acts of corruption such as stealing thousands of dollars worth of gift cards intended for needy children, and I do not believe even they would think of pulling something so blatantly smarmy in shallow retribution for what one thinks, says, and writes.

My attorneys are pursuing all legal avenues against the Selectmen to resolve such an inaccurate tax assessment based upon the stacks of information they had available to them. That said, the bravado of the Selectmen’s actions indicate that they think they are invincible, with a “bring it on” mentality to any objection to their unlawful and outlandish actions. Any challenge to them through the court system will only involve their well-paid taxpayer-funded town attorney, and any so-called “win” in court will again only be funded by money that they forcibly extract from hard-working Tamworth residents – there are no substantial personal consequences for them through the government system.

Thus, I think the most effective means of countering the Selectmen’s office is through the continued broadcasting and critiquing of their actions, as they clearly find my writings and a few cartoons poking fun at them to be so dangerous that I am in need of a four million dollar spanking. With this spirit in mind, I hereby offer my property for sale to either Selectman Farnum or Selectman Roberts at a rock-bottom price of $3.5 million – that way they make an easy $500K (by their calculations) and get rid of me in town, all in one simple real estate transaction.

The Selectmen’s history of causing problems for families and businesses in town who have caused harm to no one, their “bring it on” mentality, and their trend of punishing residents for their thoughts and words is a very negative and destructive path for Farnum, Roberts, and Pearce to take Tamworth down.

Brought to you by the last bunch of cheeky New Englander’s who objected to bureaucratic control and involuntary taxation.

And do enjoy your NH Department of Safety-regulated, Division of Fire Standards-approved, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives-licensed pyrotechnics celebrating liberty today.

After several months of toiling on behalf of the Planning Board’s excavation subcommittee, along with the diligent efforts of the state gravel bureaucrats, the Selectmen, and Cassandra Pearce: gravel companies in town are becoming an avid target of local busybodies. In particular, Hank LeTarte’s gravel operation has been shut down by royal decree until it is anointed with the appropriate government paperwork, and Chocorua Valley Lumber is being extorted to the tune of $100 /day for their history of flagrant non-cooperation with the town when it comes to wetlands and important matters of government paperwork.

Selectman Willie Farnum and Cassandra have openly discussed their creepy endeavors cruising around town eyeing what they can see of gravel operations from the road. Lessons learned: don’t let bureaucrats on your property, and put some shrubbery between your property and their leering eyes.

Do you own or work for a productive business in Tamworth looking to be left alone by invasive bureaucrats? Is your business struggling to make ends meet and can’t afford the bill charged to you for the privilege of compliance inspections? In anticipation of Tamworth’s Groundwater Protection Ordinance, now listed on the town’s website, LiveFreeAndComply.org is announcing a new service expected to be in hot demand in the immediate future: let us convert your existing five-gallon buckets into slightly less useful, yet fully GPO compliant 4 1/2 gallon buckets!

Using our patented technique, involving a Sawzall and a drill, we’ll cut your bucket down to a mere 90% of its original capacity, re-drill the holes for the handle, and leave you with a 100% GPO compliant 4 1/2 gallon bucket in which you can store fuel, motor oil, or any one of the thousands of household chemicals listed at this user-friendly EPA website. Not only will the tentacles of their ordinance not extend to you if you’re storing less than five gallons, you’ll also get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing you’re doing something good for the environment: 4 1/2 gallons of sludge would be infinitely more safe than 5 gallons, by the logic of their ordinance.

Service appointments are filling up fast, so e-mail info@livefreeandcomply.org now to schedule your time slot. Our crack team of bucket-capacity-reduction-specialists are standing by to assist you for a mere fraction of the amount that one compliance inspection would cost.

New Selectman, and so far thorn-in-the-side of local bureaucrats, Bob Abraham made public his concerns regarding access to town records and personnel files that he stated he had more-or-less been denied access to by the town secretaries. Selectman Roberts and Farnum backed up the Selectmen’s secretaries, stating that they believe that the office staff should hold the keys to the proverbial kingdom when it comes to “important” paperwork in town.

Lord knows government offices are drowning in stacks of unproductive and problem-causing paperwork – as long as this is going to be the case, however, leaving unelected bureaucratic staffers at the helm is indeed mildly worse than semi-accountable local politicians.

The passionate and vehement reaction displayed by Farnum, Roberts, and Pearce to someone who isn’t philosophically “one of them”, as is the case with Bob, having access to all the town records leaves one wondering what they’re so worried about.

The Tamworth Selectmen admonished Road Agent and local gravel-pit owner Bruce Robinson at a recent Selectmen’s meeting for ordering gravel from his own company without first putting the order out to bid. In so doing, Selectman John Roberts read from an article published in the Conway Daily Sun way back in ‘95 implicating then-Selectman Bruce Robinson, John’s father and then-Road Agent Emery Roberts, as well as himself as a Selectman at the time in a scandal involving tens of thousands of dollars from the highway budget paid to each of them.

It’s starting to sound like Chicago around here.

In what Club Motorsports bills as a “win”, their ongoing legal drama was sent back by the court system to the town to re-review CMI’s Special Use Permit application. Here’s to hoping CMI has something up their sleeve with regard to getting past the town bureaucrats, because it seems they’re back to square one and the Planning Board will just do a “better” job of telling them what they can and cannot do with their property this time around. This seems to be just another occasion for the town government to drag out the process for CMI – which, of course, is their goal.

The Tamworth Planning Board and Conservation Commission are pushing ahead with their Groundwater Protection Ordinance “in the interest of public health, safety, and general welfare” (you know you’re in trouble when government starts using phrases like that). In order to keep us all safe, they think they need to conduct compliance inspections of any business in town (home businesses included) using more than five gallons of the thousands of controlled substances listed in this federal EPA list -  namely: things as common as household products under the sink, a gas can, or a few quarts of oil for vehicles on site. More precisely: pretty much every business in Tamworth will be subject to their “compliance inspections” and associated fees.

Their ordinance lays out a “groundwater protection district” subject to these rules, covering approximately all of the non-forested parts of Tamworth, and goes so far as to ban several activities entirely; as Planning Board member Steve Gray objected: construction of new gas stations will be banned pretty much everywhere anyone would want to buy gas conveniently.

The Conservation Commission put out a Groundwater Protection Ordinance FAQ. In it, they acknowledge that their compliance inspections could be considered an invasion of privacy, and counter with some ironic arguments: “We already inspect for fire safety, what’s one more inspection?”, “Inspections are educational events.” (And if you disagree with said education, fines and enforcement action for you!), and best of all: “The only businesses that would be afraid of inspections are the ones with something to hide!” (Most folks don’t have anything to hide, but still put clothing on every morning and send their mail in sealed envelopes.)

If in fact some local business owner does end up spewing toxic substances into the ground, what are they going to say? “The Tamworth Green Police inspected and anointed my operation here, I’m off the hook.” Of course not – if a business owner is so irresponsible as to be causing actual harm to his neighbors and the environment, the responsibility has and will lie with him. Having the Tamworth Green Police engage in invasive compliance inspections all over town, and charging those businesses for the pleasure of their compliance inspections, under the auspices of “maybe, possibly someday something could go wrong here” will be a bureaucratic headache for all responsible business owners in town, and an obnoxious invasion of privacy.

In the end, the town government simply wants the ability to point at each and every business, residence, or building project in town and say “yea or nay” as to its suitability in fitting in “their vision” for Tamworth. Their recent pushes on zoning and this ordinance are simply an effort to legitimize town government’s desires via stacks of paperwork, bureaucracy, and law.

As if GPS’ing everyone’s front door for the census wasn’t odd enough, the federal government is currently busy cataloguing “homes and buildings” in Tamworth under the auspices of drug research. This National Survey on Drug Use and Health is being conducted locally by the Research Triangle Institute, a federal contractor based in North Carolina.

Local man-on-the-ground conducting said inventory, David Paige, stated that the address and building inventory was a precursor to randomly-selected interviews to be conducted next year. According to the RTI website “Participants complete the interview in the privacy of their own home.” David Paige stated that this information is also used to determine where best to direct federal income tax dollars for rehab centers. David’s supervisor at RTI, Carol Mickus, further elaborated that “drug use affects us all” and New Hampshire is vigorously vying for its share of the rehab loot, apparently.

Great! Let’s have the fifty states compete to see who can be the most dysfunctional. New Hampshire might even consider importing some stoners and crackheads from New Jersey; that way we could really have a problem and receive piles of federal tax dollars for such an accomplishment.

While a healthy lifestyle is always a positive thing to encourage, if someone finds it to be a rewarding and fulfilling existence to spend his life shooting heroine and snorting cocaine alone in a dark room, that should be his body and mind to destroy. What people choose to put, or not to put, in their bodies’ ought not be the FedGov’s business. The only people making “drug use affect us all” are federal redistributors making the rest of us pay for rehab centers in response to the poor personal choices of stoners and crackheads. Granted, one can reasonably say drug use is associated with increased crime – but then so are vehicles, firearms, genetics, kitchen knives, and any countless number of other harmless actions, inanimate objects, or personal choices. Having law enforcement in the business of punishing people for actions, objects or choices that could lead to crime is a scary policy. See: Tom Cruise, Minority Report

Paige and Mickus want to know what type of home is at an address, and Paige is going around recording street addresses on a clip board, along with topographical maps with which to confirm locations of residences. Want to just be left alone and not have your home catalogued? Paige stated that he and his colleagues are specifically instructed to “ignore No Trespassing signs”, in conflict with common decency and New Hampshire’s criminal trespass statutes. Reportedly, higher-ups at the federal Department of Health and Human Services deny this policy, and place the blame on poorly trained local surveyors. Paige did ruefully acknowledge that he had been met with some lack of enthusiasm and politeness at several homes. Hopefully this invasive policy will be changing, but for now, Supervisor Carol Mickus can be contacted at 603-279-9002 if you wish to let her know that you value being left out of the federal government’s creepy home-indexing project.